feel I would have an easy case to plead. This is just what Jesus has to do. He has to intercede with his Father, and note, with our Father too. There is a double precedent to strengthen our confidence that he must prevail. When Christ pleads, he does not plead with one who is stronger than he is or hostile to him, but with his own Father. “My Father,” he says, “it is my delight to do your will and it is your delight to do my will, I will then that they, whom you have given to me, be with me where I am.” And then he adds this blessed argument, “Father those for whom I plead are your own children, and you love them as much as I do,” yes, “you have loved them as you have loved me.” Oh, it is no hard task to plead, when you are pleading with a Father for a brother, and when the advocate can say, “I go to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.” Suppose, my dear friends, that any of you were about to be tried for your life, do you think you could trust your advocacy with any man you know? I really think I would be impatient to speak for myself. But my counsel would say, “Now just be quiet, my dear sir, you perhaps may plead more earnestly than I can, because it is for your own life, but then you do not understand the law, you will make some blunder or other and commit yourself and spoil your own cause.” But still I think if my life were in the balance, and I stood in the dock, and my counsel would be pleading for me, my tongue would be itching to plead for myself, and I would want to get up and just say, “My lord, I am innocent, innocent as the newly born babe, of the crime laid to my charge. My hands have never been stained with the blood of any man.” Oh! I think I could indeed plead if I were pleading for myself. But, do you know, I have never felt that with regard to Christ. I can sit down and let him plead, and I do not want to get up and conduct the pleading myself. I do feel that he loves me better than I love myself. My cause is quite safe in his hands, especially when I remember again that he pleads with my Father, and that he is his own Father’s beloved Son, and that he is my brother — and such a brother — a brother born for adversity.
Give him, my soul, your cause to plead,
Nor doubt the Father’s grace.
It is enough; he has the cause, nor would we take it from his hand even if we could —
I know that safe with him remains,
Protected by his power —
What I’ve committed to his hands
Until the decisive hour.
12. Well did the apostle say, “To the very uttermost he is able to save those who come to God by him, because he lives for ever to make intercession for them.”
13. I have thus given you the four props and pillars of the believer’s faith. And now my hearers, let me just utter this personal appeal to you. What would you give, some of you, if you could have such a hope as this? Here are four pillars. Oh unhappy souls that cannot call one of these your own! The mass of men are all in uncertainty; they do not know what will become of them at last. They are discontented enough with life and yet they are afraid to die. God is angry with them, and they know it. Death is terrible to them; the tomb frightens them, they can scarcely understand the possibility of having any confidence this side of the grave. Ah, my hearers, what would you give if you could obtain this confidence? And yet it is within reach of every truly penitent sinner. If you are now led to repent of sin; if you will now cast yourself on the blood and righteousness of Christ, your eternal salvation shall be as sure as your present existence. He cannot perish who relies on Christ, and he who has faith in Jesus may see the heavens pass away, but not God’s Word. He may see the earth burned, but into the fire of hell he can never go. He is safe, and he must be saved, though all things pass away.
14. And now this brings me to the challenge. Gladly would I picture the apostle as he appeared when he was uttering it. Listen! I hear a brave, strong voice, crying, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” “Who is that? — Paul. What! Paul, a Christian! I thought Christians were a humble, timid people.” “They are so; but not when they are arrayed in the robes, and invested with the credentials of their Sovereign.” They are lambs in the harmlessness of their dispositions, but they have the courage of lions when they defend the honours of their King. Again, I hear him cry, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” — and he casts his eyes to heaven. Is not the wretch smitten dead? Will not such presumption as this be avenged? Does he challenge purity to convict him of guilt? Oh Paul, the thunderbolt of God will strike you! “No,” he says, “it is God who justifies, I am not afraid to face the highest heaven, since God has said that I am just. I can look upward without distressing fear.” “But hush! do not repeat that challenge.” “Yes,” he says, “I will. Who is he who condemns.” And I see him look downwards; there lies the old dragon, bound in chains, the accuser of the brethren; and the apostle stares him in the face, and says, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Why, Paul, Satan will bring thundering accusations against you; are you not afraid? “No,” he says, “I can shut his mouth with this cry, ‘It is Christ who died’; — that will make him tremble, for he crushed the serpent’s head in that victorious hour. And I can shut his mouth again — yes rather, who is risen again, for he took him captive on that day; — I will add, ‘who sits at the right hand of God.’ I can foil him with that, for he sits there to judge him and to condemn him for ever. Once more I will appeal to his advocacy. ‘Who makes intercession for us.’ I can stop his accusation with this perpetual care of Jesus for his people.” Again, cries Paul, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” There lie the bodies of the saints he has martyred, and they cry from under the altar — “Oh Lord! how long will you not avenge your own elect?” Paul says, — “Who can lay anything to my charge?” And they do not speak; “because,” says Paul, “I have obtained mercy — who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, that in me first he might show forth all longsuffering.” “Christ has died, yes rather, has risen again.” And now standing in the midst of men who mock, and boast, and jeer, he cries — “Who can lay anything to my charge?” and no one dares to speak, for man himself cannot accuse him; with all his malevolence, and acrimony, and malice, he can bring nothing against him; no charge can stand at the judgment bar of God against the man whom he has absolved through the merits of the death of Christ, and the power of his resurrection.
15. Is it not a noble thing for a Christian to be able to go where he may, and feel that he cannot meet his accuser; that wherever he may be, whether he walks within himself in the chambers of conscience, or out of himself among his fellow men, or above himself into heaven, or beneath himself into hell, yet he is a justified one, and nothing can be laid to his charge. Who can condemn? Who can condemn? Yes, echo oh you skies; reverberate, you caverns of the deep. Who can condemn when Christ has died, has risen from the dead, is enthroned on high, and intercedes?
16. But all things pass away. I see the heavens on fire, rolling up like a scroll — I see sun, moon, and stars now grow pale with feeble light — the earth is tottering; the pillars of heaven are rocking; the grand assize is commenced — the herald angels descend, not to sing this time, but with thundering trumpets to proclaim, “He comes, he comes to judge the earth in righteousness, and the people in equity.” What does the believer say now? He says, “I do not fear that assize, for who can condemn me?” The great white throne is set, the books are opened, men are trembling, fiends are yelling, sinners are shrieking — “Rocks hide us, mountains fall on us”; these make up an awful chorus of dismay. There stands the believer, and looking around on the assembled universe of men and angels, he cries, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” and silence reigns through earth and heaven. Again he speaks, and fixing his eyes fully on the Judge himself, he cries, “who is he who condemns?” And lo, there upon the throne of judgment sits the only one who can condemn; and who is that? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who is risen again, who sits on the right hand of God, who makes intercession for him. Can those lips say, “Depart you cursed,” to the man for whom they once did intercede? Can those eyes flash lightnings on the man whom once they saw in sin, and with rays of love they lifted him up to joy, and peace, and purity? No! Christ will not perjure himself. He cannot reverse his grace; it cannot be that the throne of condemnation shall be exalted on the ruins of the cross. It cannot be that Christ should transform himself at last, but until he can do so,